An extraordinary film.

| Jul 14, 2010

Kitamura's visual power thankfully never drowns out the story's.

| Apr 29, 2009

Well, this particular fantasy surely lost its novelty value a while back, and frankly never did much for me anyhow.

| Oct 18, 2008

What will slay you first--the often histrionic acting or the drag-out boredom of that hulking, two-hour-plus thing in the distance that faintly resembles a plot?

Full Review | Sep 11, 2007

The raw visceral pleasures are enough to carry the film past some clunky melodrama that bloats the film to a two-hour-plus run time.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 26, 2007

The tone is bleak and the comic-book violence relentless, but the wirework and Yuta Morokaji's stunt choreography are impressive.

| Apr 18, 2007

Nothing can lift the glaze from your eyes through the endlessly recurring hokey fight scenes of the movie's interminable 128-minute running time.

| Mar 1, 2007

Azumi may be an outstanding assassin, but the makers of this movie killed any chances of her being the next great action hero.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 1, 2006

It's a zippy time-passer.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 7, 2006

Ryuhei Kitamura is 37, but he makes films like a 15-year-old fanboy. That is, he has no sense of story, his visual style is basically point-and-shoot, the boys are cool and rebellious and the girls are cute.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 28, 2006

Ueto -- who was only a teenager when the film was made -- is no great actress, but her impressive agility and magnetic presence provide director Ryuhei Kitamura a perfect centerpiece around which to orchestrate his blistering ballet of blood.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 28, 2006

Azumi is slick, violently beautiful and appeals directly to the lower sensations. But just because it thrills doesn't necessarily mean it's artless.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2006

An uneven effort overall that when it is working has a strange, engaging energy that is often overturned by an uncertain staidness.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 27, 2006

It's a B-movie through and through and its indulgences come from loving the genre too much, not bracketing it with postmodern quotation marks.

| Jul 27, 2006

Failing in its attempts at Zhang Yimou-like poetry, Azumi calls to mind a long, blood-splattered director's cut of a Power Rangers episode.

| Jul 27, 2006

...teen idol Ueto...is not believable as a warrior for even a second.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2006

Though it contains some superbly staged and highly lavish action sequences...[the film] lacks the tautness of its heroine.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2006

This is fun because it's soo damn stupid.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.3/5 | Jul 21, 2006

Overdone and overlong, but its lunatic flavor -- check out Joe Odagiri's Tiny Tim as ninja sadist -- saves the day.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 21, 2006

Azumi (based on a 25-part manga series) has eye-popping battle sequences, but the story is superficial at best.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 21, 2006